there was a halloween party last night in the hangout house. i think that most people didn't really have their heart in it, what with it being 5 days after halloween and all, but at least it was sugar and human company. costume roll call: white trash, blue man, lampshade, peasant, bob dylan, robert smith (from the cure), chinese empress, pregnant swiss goatherd (i think), A CATCH, cowboy, punk rocker, fairy godmother and borat. there was pumpkin ice cream and apple cider (both good), and a lot of being carried in a tide of people from room to room. grad school parties are so much more muted than undergrad ones. i think there's a shared understanding (which no one can openly admit to) that everyone needs to be in a fit state to do work the next day, and so a tacit, nash-equilibrium level of craziness is arrived at, a compromise between wasted and just sad. someone needs to quantify this phenomenon. a noticeable bunch of people were plain missing -- i strongly suspect that they decided to go see borat: cultural learnings of america for make benefit glorious nation of kazakhstan without me, in which case i will be mad.